SPN 11.10 The Devil in the Details
SPN 11.10 The Devil in the Details
Do you really think ... that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to. To stake all one's life on a single moment, to risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure, I care not -- there is no weakness in that.
-- Oscar Wilde
Weakness. Strength. Sometimes the same quality can be viewed in completely opposite ways.
Rowena figured love to be a weakness, leaving one vulnerable to being exploited and hurt. Leaving one with nothing, to be nothing. Better to be the one doing the exploiting, achieving the highest level of strength possible.
Olivette: Well, I really can’t say I’m surprised. You always were petulant and reckless and overrated. Banishment was too good for you.
Rowena: You were always so envious of my skills, you fool. The only threat I ever posed to the coven was that I was smarter, more gifted than you!
Olivette: More blindly ambitious!
Olivette: Oh, poor, poor Rowena. Always the victim of one conspiracy or another. You’re so consumed with your rise of power, you can’t see the truth. (10.16)
Like Olivette said, can we really say we are surprised at the final outcome of Rowena's fate? Blind ambition prevented her from seeing the truth of Lucifer's character. She saw the power but failed to understand the evil.
Crowley: He's the devil.
Crowley put it simply. One simple fact that should have told her all she needed to know. She prided herself on being strong enough to team up with the Biggest Bad history has been familiar with. Having the courage to do what others feared to risk. Not to save the world, oh no.
Rowena: After Lucifer stops the Darkness, he'll ascend to his throne. In Heaven. And I'll be by his side.
Chasing after the brass ring, the man who would make her a queen. With all the power and prestige that would come with this position. The prize that had slipped through her fingers when she had been a simple, ordinary girl.
Crowley: Mother, why do you hate me?
Rowena: I hate you, because when I look into your eyes I see the woman I used to be, before magic, before the coven. When I was nothing but Rowena, the tanner's daughter. A pale, scared little girl, who smelled of filth and death. I hate you, because when you were born, your father said he loved me, then he went back to his grand wife and his grand house, whilst I lay pathetic and half dead on a straw mat -- my thighs slick with blood. I hate you, because if I didn't, I'd love you. But love, love is weakness. And I'll never be weak again.
Lucifer offered Rowena the temptation of ambition. And she bit down on it. It's ironic that if she had allowed herself to love her son, he would have given her ... well. More than Lucifer ended up giving her. The woman who looked back on the girl she had been, who painted herself as a victim of love... again Olivette saw her clearly. Even a simple tanner's daughter should have known better than to become involved with a wealthy married man who had a family. Her greatest weakness wasn't loving the wrong man or loving anyone at all, but allowing her ambition to blind her to the most likely outcome given the path of her choices.
Those with an ambition for Power do not share. They use. And the moment there is the opportunity to remove a potential threat... well.
She ended up paying the full price for her ambition. Yes, she was powerful and capable. Yes, she was a force to be reckoned with. And yes, her strength ended up also being her weakness, leading to the only inevitable outcome possible.
What about the opposite?
Ambriel: ... we're both expendable.
Castiel: Excuse me?
Ambriel: Well, that's why we're here, right? I'm a number cruncher and you-you like I said, I've heard the stories. You help. But Sam and Dean Winchester are the real heroes. So if the Darkness is still alive and she's pissed and she kills us, no big loss. So sure, maybe we're not super important, but we do the job. You know? I think there's nobility in that.
Castiel has been struggling with figuring out who he is and where he belongs for awhile now.
Metatron: ... What we really are - are a bunch of glowing lights filled with self-loathing or delusions of grandeur. Or both.
Castiel: You shut up!
Metatron: No! If I’m gonna die, I want answers. Like, who are you now? Like, you’re obviously not an angel of the Lord. And what about all of this walking the earth like Caine from “Kung Fu” crap? Cleaning up Heaven’s messes. How many more rogue angels are there out there? And, what are you gonna do once you’re done with all that? Go back to Heaven? Please. The angel formerly known as Hannah has restored order up top. Smoothest it’s run since God cut the ribbon on the pearly gates. So tell me, Castiel, truly, what is your mission now? (10.18)
Castiel helps, as he can. But he's been rejected by Heaven... or he rejected Heaven, depending on how you see it. So what is his mission these days? Helping Sam and Dean is all well and good, but how much is he actually contributing? From his perspective... he is expendable. On both fronts. Heaven doesn't want him, and Sam and Dean seem to spend more time helping him than getting helped by him. He was okay with helping as much as he can, being part of Team Free Will. At least with Sam and Dean he has a place where he is accepted.
Castiel: You think I'm afraid to die?
Amara: I know you are. You reek of fear and self loathing. Oh, scary. She's right you know, you are expendable and weak. And why God took a special interest in you, I'll never understand.
Amara calls him out on his self-loathing, just as Metatron had. His fear of failure. All the messes he has played a part in creating. All the mistakes he has made. Now he comes face-to-face with a Being who could devour him in a trice... and she doesn't even see him as enough of a threat to bother killing. He also got a sense of just how much raw power she is packing.
Amara: Blue Eyes, you aren't even worth the effort.
Castiel panicked. If he can't stop her, and he can't see a way for Sam and Dean to stop her, then how else can he do his job? So he opts for the sacrifice. It wasn't so much his weakness as that he perceives himself as weak. So he reached out to the one source of power he hoped could do the job of stopping Amara.
Castiel: Can you really beat her?
Lucifer: I can.
Castiel: Then yes.
His one possible saving grace? Love. That emotion Rowena despised and rejected just might end up saving him from his own self-destructive choice in letting Lucifer take over his vessel. Sam and Dean aren't just heroes, they are his family. This risky choice he made will have to play out for us to see how it will end.
Lucifer is the master exploiter. He used Rowena, he ultimately snagged Castiel, and he gave it his best effort to snag his true vessel, Sam.
The strategy: Presenting emotions as weakness, and playing to the ambition to get that big win.
Hmm. Sounds familiar.
Lucifer: Sam have I ever told you how much I respect you?
Sam: What?
Lucifer: Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't like you. I never liked you. You're sort of prissy. But in this moment? When you stood toe to toe with me and won? You had balls. You were willing to do the hard thing if it meant saving the world. That's not you anymore. You've gone soft, Sammy.
Appealing to Sam's pride and ambition. Attacking his confidence in the obstacles standing in Lucifer's way -- Sam's relationship with Dean. Love, loyalty, guilt, belief and faith in each other... it was a nice attempt. He hit some notes that probably did resonate. Sam and Dean have been through a lot of ups and downs with each other, and if painted a certain way, the conclusion seems obvious. Right?
Lucifer: You can't win this one, you're just not strong enough.
Sam: And you are?
The brother's bond is their weakness that can be and is used against them often. It's also their greatest strength that continues to be underestimated.
Lucifer: I'm it! And hey, I'm not the good guy, we both know I'm not, but the Darkness, she's the end of everything. But I can beat her We can beat her. You and me, together. So come on, Sam. Make the right choice, the big sacrifice one more time, man. Sam, it's time to save the world, man.
Sam: No.
You and me, together. Wrong you and me, Lucifer. Sam and Dean operate on a fundamental level as Sam-n-Dean. Guess you just got Winchestered.
Sam: Wrong. Then you go about starting the Apocalypse again, because you're an old dog and that's your trick.
Lucifer: Okay, first off you don't know that. Second, even if I did that's better than what she has planned.
Sam: Is it? Really? 'Cause this is what I think, I think that whoever wins -- you or the Darkness -- everyone else loses. So no. My answer is no. This isn't because of Dean, or the past, this is about me having faith in my friends, having faith in my family. We will find a way. I'm ready to die and I'm ready to watch people I love die, but I'm not ready to be your bitch.
Love doesn't always betray. It can be the best protection against temptation there is. Sam was willing to risk everything on it. The stakes are only the world. Old hat for the Winchesters. They will find a way. Together. There might be a sacrifice required, Lucifer might have tricked Castiel by promising the strength to stop Amara, but Lucifer doesn't understand one very important detail. Love can be more powerful than the greatest ambition in the world. And for Sam and Dean and even our fallen angel Castiel, love never fails. It beat Lucifer before, and he is still an old dog who hasn't learned single new thing. Arrogance can also be a weakness.
I have to admit things look grim at the moment, but I too have faith in Team Free Will.
Lucifer: You're betting on Dean?
Sam: I always have.
It's "the two of us against the world" -- again and again and forever more.
Such an obvious detail. Two humans standing up against the nightmare scenario of the Darkness and Lucifer both loose on the Earth at the same time. I leave it to Crowley to sum up the pesky detail Lucifer discounts and Amara doesn't know enough about:
Crowley: Am I the only game piece on the board who doesn't underestimate those denim-wrapped nightmares? (6.20)
Do you really think ... that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to. To stake all one's life on a single moment, to risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure, I care not -- there is no weakness in that.
-- Oscar Wilde
Weakness. Strength. Sometimes the same quality can be viewed in completely opposite ways.
Rowena figured love to be a weakness, leaving one vulnerable to being exploited and hurt. Leaving one with nothing, to be nothing. Better to be the one doing the exploiting, achieving the highest level of strength possible.
Olivette: Well, I really can’t say I’m surprised. You always were petulant and reckless and overrated. Banishment was too good for you.
Rowena: You were always so envious of my skills, you fool. The only threat I ever posed to the coven was that I was smarter, more gifted than you!
Olivette: More blindly ambitious!
Olivette: Oh, poor, poor Rowena. Always the victim of one conspiracy or another. You’re so consumed with your rise of power, you can’t see the truth. (10.16)
Like Olivette said, can we really say we are surprised at the final outcome of Rowena's fate? Blind ambition prevented her from seeing the truth of Lucifer's character. She saw the power but failed to understand the evil.
Crowley: He's the devil.
Crowley put it simply. One simple fact that should have told her all she needed to know. She prided herself on being strong enough to team up with the Biggest Bad history has been familiar with. Having the courage to do what others feared to risk. Not to save the world, oh no.
Rowena: After Lucifer stops the Darkness, he'll ascend to his throne. In Heaven. And I'll be by his side.
Chasing after the brass ring, the man who would make her a queen. With all the power and prestige that would come with this position. The prize that had slipped through her fingers when she had been a simple, ordinary girl.
Crowley: Mother, why do you hate me?
Rowena: I hate you, because when I look into your eyes I see the woman I used to be, before magic, before the coven. When I was nothing but Rowena, the tanner's daughter. A pale, scared little girl, who smelled of filth and death. I hate you, because when you were born, your father said he loved me, then he went back to his grand wife and his grand house, whilst I lay pathetic and half dead on a straw mat -- my thighs slick with blood. I hate you, because if I didn't, I'd love you. But love, love is weakness. And I'll never be weak again.
Lucifer offered Rowena the temptation of ambition. And she bit down on it. It's ironic that if she had allowed herself to love her son, he would have given her ... well. More than Lucifer ended up giving her. The woman who looked back on the girl she had been, who painted herself as a victim of love... again Olivette saw her clearly. Even a simple tanner's daughter should have known better than to become involved with a wealthy married man who had a family. Her greatest weakness wasn't loving the wrong man or loving anyone at all, but allowing her ambition to blind her to the most likely outcome given the path of her choices.
Those with an ambition for Power do not share. They use. And the moment there is the opportunity to remove a potential threat... well.
She ended up paying the full price for her ambition. Yes, she was powerful and capable. Yes, she was a force to be reckoned with. And yes, her strength ended up also being her weakness, leading to the only inevitable outcome possible.
What about the opposite?
Ambriel: ... we're both expendable.
Castiel: Excuse me?
Ambriel: Well, that's why we're here, right? I'm a number cruncher and you-you like I said, I've heard the stories. You help. But Sam and Dean Winchester are the real heroes. So if the Darkness is still alive and she's pissed and she kills us, no big loss. So sure, maybe we're not super important, but we do the job. You know? I think there's nobility in that.
Castiel has been struggling with figuring out who he is and where he belongs for awhile now.
Metatron: ... What we really are - are a bunch of glowing lights filled with self-loathing or delusions of grandeur. Or both.
Castiel: You shut up!
Metatron: No! If I’m gonna die, I want answers. Like, who are you now? Like, you’re obviously not an angel of the Lord. And what about all of this walking the earth like Caine from “Kung Fu” crap? Cleaning up Heaven’s messes. How many more rogue angels are there out there? And, what are you gonna do once you’re done with all that? Go back to Heaven? Please. The angel formerly known as Hannah has restored order up top. Smoothest it’s run since God cut the ribbon on the pearly gates. So tell me, Castiel, truly, what is your mission now? (10.18)
Castiel helps, as he can. But he's been rejected by Heaven... or he rejected Heaven, depending on how you see it. So what is his mission these days? Helping Sam and Dean is all well and good, but how much is he actually contributing? From his perspective... he is expendable. On both fronts. Heaven doesn't want him, and Sam and Dean seem to spend more time helping him than getting helped by him. He was okay with helping as much as he can, being part of Team Free Will. At least with Sam and Dean he has a place where he is accepted.
Castiel: You think I'm afraid to die?
Amara: I know you are. You reek of fear and self loathing. Oh, scary. She's right you know, you are expendable and weak. And why God took a special interest in you, I'll never understand.
Amara calls him out on his self-loathing, just as Metatron had. His fear of failure. All the messes he has played a part in creating. All the mistakes he has made. Now he comes face-to-face with a Being who could devour him in a trice... and she doesn't even see him as enough of a threat to bother killing. He also got a sense of just how much raw power she is packing.
Amara: Blue Eyes, you aren't even worth the effort.
Castiel panicked. If he can't stop her, and he can't see a way for Sam and Dean to stop her, then how else can he do his job? So he opts for the sacrifice. It wasn't so much his weakness as that he perceives himself as weak. So he reached out to the one source of power he hoped could do the job of stopping Amara.
Castiel: Can you really beat her?
Lucifer: I can.
Castiel: Then yes.
His one possible saving grace? Love. That emotion Rowena despised and rejected just might end up saving him from his own self-destructive choice in letting Lucifer take over his vessel. Sam and Dean aren't just heroes, they are his family. This risky choice he made will have to play out for us to see how it will end.
Lucifer is the master exploiter. He used Rowena, he ultimately snagged Castiel, and he gave it his best effort to snag his true vessel, Sam.
The strategy: Presenting emotions as weakness, and playing to the ambition to get that big win.
Hmm. Sounds familiar.
Lucifer: Sam have I ever told you how much I respect you?
Sam: What?
Lucifer: Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't like you. I never liked you. You're sort of prissy. But in this moment? When you stood toe to toe with me and won? You had balls. You were willing to do the hard thing if it meant saving the world. That's not you anymore. You've gone soft, Sammy.
Appealing to Sam's pride and ambition. Attacking his confidence in the obstacles standing in Lucifer's way -- Sam's relationship with Dean. Love, loyalty, guilt, belief and faith in each other... it was a nice attempt. He hit some notes that probably did resonate. Sam and Dean have been through a lot of ups and downs with each other, and if painted a certain way, the conclusion seems obvious. Right?
Lucifer: You can't win this one, you're just not strong enough.
Sam: And you are?
The brother's bond is their weakness that can be and is used against them often. It's also their greatest strength that continues to be underestimated.
Lucifer: I'm it! And hey, I'm not the good guy, we both know I'm not, but the Darkness, she's the end of everything. But I can beat her We can beat her. You and me, together. So come on, Sam. Make the right choice, the big sacrifice one more time, man. Sam, it's time to save the world, man.
Sam: No.
You and me, together. Wrong you and me, Lucifer. Sam and Dean operate on a fundamental level as Sam-n-Dean. Guess you just got Winchestered.
Sam: Wrong. Then you go about starting the Apocalypse again, because you're an old dog and that's your trick.
Lucifer: Okay, first off you don't know that. Second, even if I did that's better than what she has planned.
Sam: Is it? Really? 'Cause this is what I think, I think that whoever wins -- you or the Darkness -- everyone else loses. So no. My answer is no. This isn't because of Dean, or the past, this is about me having faith in my friends, having faith in my family. We will find a way. I'm ready to die and I'm ready to watch people I love die, but I'm not ready to be your bitch.
Love doesn't always betray. It can be the best protection against temptation there is. Sam was willing to risk everything on it. The stakes are only the world. Old hat for the Winchesters. They will find a way. Together. There might be a sacrifice required, Lucifer might have tricked Castiel by promising the strength to stop Amara, but Lucifer doesn't understand one very important detail. Love can be more powerful than the greatest ambition in the world. And for Sam and Dean and even our fallen angel Castiel, love never fails. It beat Lucifer before, and he is still an old dog who hasn't learned single new thing. Arrogance can also be a weakness.
I have to admit things look grim at the moment, but I too have faith in Team Free Will.
Lucifer: You're betting on Dean?
Sam: I always have.
It's "the two of us against the world" -- again and again and forever more.
Such an obvious detail. Two humans standing up against the nightmare scenario of the Darkness and Lucifer both loose on the Earth at the same time. I leave it to Crowley to sum up the pesky detail Lucifer discounts and Amara doesn't know enough about:
Crowley: Am I the only game piece on the board who doesn't underestimate those denim-wrapped nightmares? (6.20)